Zero's Guide to Riichi/Reach Mahjong ~rules, points, and general discussion~

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Zero's Guide to Riichi/Reach Mahjong ~rules, points, and general discussion~

The last time a mahjong thread was made, it didn't seem like there were any new players. This thread's opening purpose is a visual aid to hopeful beginners, introducing Japanese Riichi Mahjong in the Ari-Ari style. All this means is that common "local" or "house" rules will also be introduced. These rules introduce a little more chance and may increase the pace of play, which increases casual play enjoyment. These rules will also be isolated later on for those who wish to play using the more rigid tourney style rules.

Now with links to other posts relevant to the rules!The Introduction
Within The Introduction, there are quite a few different topics. All Hail f3 or whatever your search command is (Search I00#, there ya go). Anyways, the topics parsed out are as follows:

Tiles (I001) - Well, These are the tiles.

Hand Formation Basics (I002) - Yep, that's how we play.

Calls (I003) - Because this is how some people like the game

Riichi and Yaku (I004) - The Defining point for Riichi mahjong. Dora is touched upon in this section.

Winning (I005) - This is how you win the game.

Oh Yeah, Question. (I006) - Because I went narration, this section is more on the limits of dora.

Setting Up and Payment Types (I007) - Wall Building and all that jazz.

The Set Up - Point Stick discussion and distribution. Also In-Game Deposits, Penalties, and Bonuses section (riichi, honba/renchan, proportionality winnings, chombo, and noten)

Washouts - How the game ends if no one wins. Special cases of force draws, etc.

After the opening posts, I encourage questions, discussion about possible tactics, and most importantly I hope that people will use this thread as a means of setting up matches and playing with each other. Mahjong is a multiplayer game, so getting people together is what this is all about. There are FREE to use online sites, such as tenhou.net, where we can play against each other even with large physical location problems. In fact, I encourage the use of tenhou.net, since there is a tab which allows you to look at games you've participated in. Asking about how to do things or what went wrong using this is a great way to improve, and even learn. Online matches in the non-zero lobbies, where we can isolate ourselves to have matches among ourselves (members of beast's lair and maybe other friends), is also the reason for the sticky. Hope everyone interested can enjoy themselves~
We'll use this lobby for online matches, unless you have another preference (in which case, speak up and we can vote) :http://tenhou.net/0/?L7776

For those who need help logging into Tenhou, this is pretty helpful.
For more details on the Tenhou engine and interface, including replay data, etc., this should be quite helpful too.
Anyways, let's get going on this introduction to Japanese Riichi Mahjong.

Training Links for Yaku Mastery and Scoring are in the 2nd post

Assisting (doing all of the actual work for) me for the first portion of this instruction will be Ayumu, the resident Mahjong deity representing Love and Peace.Is everyone ready~?

*disclaimer: I can't read moonrunes, so these aren't actual translations. I tried to listen properly for the names/categories, but Yui Sakakibara's hilariously erotic voice (hilarious being the part that matters right now) means it won't necessarily be sounded out properly. I'll eventually edit more "proper" names in if this thread actually survives.*
(I001)TILES

First, let's look at the tiles used in play:
Pretty, huh?

It's too overwhelming to just try to learn all of them at once. So let's start with the suits,shuuhai/shuupai like with a deck of cards.
Numbering 1-9 in three suits, from the top they are manzu (Chinese characters), pinzu (circles, dots, etc.), and souzu[/i] (bamboo, with the exception of number 1 being a bird--don't ask, it just is). In the middle of play, pinzu and souzu are easy to figure out--just count the number of dots or bamboo, remembering the bird for 1 of souzu.
Counting only really helps in manzu up to the number 4--1 has a single line, 2 has two lines, 3 has three lines, and 4 has 4 vertical lines sandwiched between two horizontal lines. 5 is the messiest of the manzu, so that is one way to remember it. 6 looks kinda like a stick person running, so I remember it as a person--1 head, 1 torso, 2 arms, 2 legs, for a total of 6 things. 7, 8, and 9 are harder, but there is a way to remember them. This is Beast's Lair, and Nanaya fans abound. 7 here is the same as Nanaya's seven. Or, you could think of it as a sloppy upside-down cursive Arabic seven. 8 and 9 I don't really have anything to help you memorize with by themselves, but as the left over tiles, 8 has less "strokes" than 9.
Pronunciation of these tiles are a simple affixing the number at the respective defining feature of the suits. 1=ii, 2=ryan, 3=san, 4=suu, 5=uu, 6=ryuu/lo, 7=chii, 8=paa, 9=chuu; manzu->wan, pinzu->pin, souzu->sou. The only exceptions to this naming rule are 4 of the souzu, 2,3,4, and 8. These aren't really glaring exceptions, but rather pronunciation conventions. Ryansou becomes ryanzou, sansou becomes sanzou, suusou becomes sussou, paasou becomes passou.

Next are the honors tiles, tsuupai/tsuuhai. You can think of these as like "jokers" in a deck of cards, but have a more pronounced usage.

Altogether, that means there are 3 suits x 9 numbers for suits + 7 for honors giving us a total of 34 different tiles.

There are four of each tile, giving a total of 136 tiles.
Just remember, there are only 34 different tiles, and the rest are copies. A deck of cards has 52-54 different cards, depending on if jokers are included or not. This task is looking less daunting already, hopefully.

I'm sure you've already noticed, but the honors tiles are divided into two parts:

First are the Four Winds tiles
from left to right, East (Ton), South (Nan), West (Xia), North (Pei).

Last are the Three Dragons tiles
from left to right, White/Blank (Haku), Green (Hatsu), Red (Chun)

Now that you know what all of the tiles are called, let's get onto the game.

(I002)Hand Formation Basics

A basic working hand in mahjong consists of 13 tiles, and completed basic hand in mahjong consists of 14 tiles. That is, each player sits with 13 tiles, and takes turns drawing and discarding a tile. We will take a look at the composition of a completed hand, since a working hand doesn't progress if you don't know what to aim for.
4 sets of 3 tiles (mentsu) and a pair/head (atama) make up a winning hand.

let's look at some examples of mentsu.

of these, let's first take a look at the left column.
this type of set is called shuntsu, also called a straight or sequence. you can only make shuntsu in threes, meaning no 1234. of course, you can can have a 123456, but it counts as two sets, not one.

let's look at some restrictions on shuntsushuntsu are restricted to staying within the respective suit, and only in increasing order. for those with difficulty on manzu numbering, refer back to second tutorial image, or the 4th image and captions in this post. this shows that while 567 is allowed, 912 is not allowed. Also, the tsuuhai don't form shuntsu ever.

now let's look at the other mentsu
these are 3 of a kinds, koutsu. 4 of a kind is also possible, and falls under koutsu as well, but more will be said on this later.

a winning hand is such made up of 4 mentsu, with each mentsu being either shuntsu or koutsu.
the only part without discussion is the head or pair. from it's name alone, it should easy enough to figure out what it is.

These are the basic structures of hand making. Now let's move onto a critical part of making hands.

(I003)Calls

Other than drawing tiles, it is possible to build your hand using the discards of other players. There is also a special call required for the 4 of a kind koutsu.
These calls are pon, chii, and kan. It should be noted that using calls to complete a mentsu is exactly that--you can only call if you're one tile away from completing the mentsu.

First we will look at pon and chii.
Note that these are examples, so any shuuhai falls under these terms.

Pon is the completing of a koutsu.
this is shown by the upper diagram using the manzu: iiwan.

Chii is the completing of a shuntsu.
this is shown by the lower diagram using the souzu: sanzou, sussou, and uusou.
Chii has an inconvenient restriction, which will be noted later in the Setting Up section

These two are the basic calls.
It should be noted that calls can only happen on the most immediate of discards--once a new tile is drawn, all discarded tiles are "dead" and sit there to be gawked at for the rest of the hand.

Now let's look at the special call, Kan.
Like with pon, you have to collect the same tile in your hand before making this call. Displayed here, you must already have 3 tiles in your hand before declaring kan.

Let's look at the top row kan more closely.
this type of kan is made by collecting 3 of the 4 tiles, and calling the 4th tile. this is called a minkan. This distinction is necessary for the scoring system.

Now let's look at the bottom row kan more closely.
this type of kan is made when you collect all 4 of the tiles on your own draws. this is called an ankan.

Ankan are the luckiest and most useful/versatile of the kan calls.
Even though it is technically a call, unlike other calls, your hand remains considered "closed". This is a very powerful distinction for scoring. It also looks cool, since you get to turn tiles over.

Minkan are still pretty rare, and have many perks in ari-ari rules.
This minkan shown is made by collecting 3 tiles and then calling on the 4th. This is called a daiminkan. This distinction isn't really necessary outside of a very obscure and rarely used rule, but since is great, they're calling it that.

Minkan can also be made through the use of Pon.
after collecting two tiles, it is possible to declare pon on the third. then, drawing the 4th tile, you can promote the pon into a kan. it has the same end effect as a daiminkan, but promoting a pon into a kan comes with a risk--if the promotion tile is someone's winning tile, they can call your promotion and effectively steal the tile you drew yourself. It is also possible to already have 3 of the tiles, but declare pon only and save the 4th for either shuntsu or delaying the call of kan.

There is a restriction on the promotion of pon into kan.
This isn't a special rule, but rather the application of the rules on calling in general. If you've already declared pon, that mentsu is already exposed. As such, if someone discards the 4th tile, you cannot call that tile to make a kan--this would make your koutsu made of two tiles self drawn, and two tiles recycled from other players. Called mentsu can only have 1 recycled tile.

These are the three methods of arriving at the kan call.
All kans have a special function. Since you are turning a mentsu, which is usually 3 tiles, into a 4 tile set, the rest of your hand will now be lacking. To compensate, a player declaring kan is allowed to draw an extra tile from the stack of tiles at the end of the game that you usually are not allowed to touch--the dead wall or king's treasure. If you happen to complete your winning hand by the dead wall draw, your hand increases in point value. This chance would be a reason to take the risk of holding onto the 4th tile and only calling pon, instead of making an immediate daiminkan. Risk management is the game, here.

These are all of the "hand building" calls in the game. Increasing points has been mentioned in passing, so let's move onto that.

(I004)Riichi and Yaku

In riichi mahjong, scoring is not a simple addition system. It uses a base score and multiplier count to calculate hand values. Granted, higher multiplier scores far exceed the allotted point values in a game, so for hands of 5 multipliers or more, predetermined scores are listed. Also, since base score can only go so high, and for ease of play, "calculated" point hands are also easy to fit in a table. Discussion on base score and a table of values for hands will be given their own section later. This section will be about discussing multiplier points, fan. Fan are awarded in set amounts by meeting certain conditions with your hand. These conditions are called yaku.

First, we will go over the yaku that makes riichi mahjong riichi mahjong--Riichi.
Riichi is the lovely engrish version of the word "reach". In other words, declaring "riichi" means you're telling your opponents that you've reached tenpai. Tenpai is the state of your 13 tiles ready and waiting for your winning 14th tile (15th-18th tile if you're using kan). This image shows a hand about to be in tenpai--14 tiles in hand, discarding either the sussou (4 of bamboo) or ryuusou/losou (6 of bamboo), the upcoming working hand will be waiting on uusou, or sussou and passou, respectively. In the former, uusou will complete the 456 shuntsu while in the latter, sussou or passou will complete the 444 or 888 koutsu, with 88 or 44 becoming the atama.

Declaring Riichi--the deposit
After proclaiming to all of your enemies that you're ready to sink their battle ships if they make one false move or you get lucky, you have to put your money where your mouth is. After declaring riichi, you throw down a 1000 point (from here on, ten; so as to not confuse other point values) counter stick. So not only have you potentially pissed off your opponents, you've also laid money on the table free for the taking, but only if block your assault first. Yeah, riichi is pretty mocking.

Declaring Riichi--timing is important
Declaring riichi is nice and angering and all, but for those tacticians that thrive on countering the offensive asshole of the neighborhood, it is important to know when they're mounting their offense. And since this is courteous japan, we go right out and give them a nice reminder. Riichi's final step is laying out you last unwanted tile sideways, indicating that you're in a state of riichi. This serves two purposes: 1. If you get it fast enough, you get to pour the pressure on. 2. After declaring riichi, you can't change your hand. You've declared that you're ready to make imaginary gusts of wind in anime style. Changing tiles in your hand might mean you're no longer ready. If someone has reached, the other players keep watch to make sure no blatant cheating is happening.

Declaring Riichi--why do it?
So you've declared riichi, announcing to everyone that you wanna blow their heads off. You've also put money on the table. You can't change your position either. You're flaunting and taunting. You're just pissing everyone off. So why is this the namesake of the game, and why do it at all?
Remember those multipliers called yaku? Riichi is a yaku that offers you 1 fan point!

Declaring Riichi--didn't you say 5 multipliers/fan or more were where the real hands were?
Yes. Yes I did. Basically, you want to collect as many fan points as possible, and riichi as a 1 fan yaku gives you +1. Try hard to get more.

Declaring Riichi--no seriously, why do it? 1 fan is nothing. And I know you're not allowed to stack riichi to give you +1 per deposit, unfortunately(?).
Shut up, you fool! do you even know the meaning of a "multiplier"?! You need at least 1 fan if you want your hand to be valid! or do you want to say "I won! 0 ten!".
Since you're an idiot who doesn't even know other yaku yet, riichi will let your trashy hand at least win. Maybe. If you get lucky enough, you might annoy your opponent to death.
Also, if you win while in riichi, you have a chance of gaining uradora!

Declaring Riichi--wat.
no seriously, what? wtf is uradora? or dora for that matter?

=___=

OBJECTION! You haven't explained shit about dora. is it a yaku?

Huh, I'm impressed; you're not completely stoned 24/7. It isn't a true yaku, but if does increase your fan count if you get it. Let's talk about dora first, since uradora is an offshoot of it.

Dora--The mysterious power of luck.
Remember when I talked about Kan and the dead wall? In the dead wall, a single tile is exposed. This is the dora indicator. If you have the dora in your hand, your fan count goes up by the number of dora in your hand. (E.G. have a pon koutsu of dora, your hand's fan count is inflated by 3)

Dora indicator's method of indicating
The indicator is extremely simple--the next tile in sequence is the dora. For example, the suuwan (manzu's 4) indicator here means the uuwan (manzu's 5) is the dora.

That's cool, but...
seriously. What does riichi and uradora have to do with it?

Dora is the power of luck!
And winning with riichi means you get to flip the tile under the dora--the uradora--and it becomes a new, additional dora! since you can't see it while playing (assuming you're not cheating), getting uradora is lucky!

*Notice: The rest of the yaku will be listed in another post/section titled "List of Yaku and Ari-Ari/Nashi-Nashi differences", without the aid of Ayumu. She's too busy being hilarious to walk you through everything.*

(I005)Winning

That's great! So this entire time, we're talking about winning. How's it done exactly? I'm pretty sure you can complete your hand by drawing, but shouldn't it also be possible to win off of opponent discards, similar to open calls?
That's right. There are two methods of winning: Ron-wins and Tsumo-wins.
You can declare Ron to win off of an opponent's discard.
By process of elimination, you can declare Tsumo to when if you draw your winning tile yourself.
Moreover, if your hand is in the state that allows for riichi to be declared, tsumo-winning means you've completed your hand by your own powers alone--this rewards you as another yaku--1 fan for complete concealed victory.

BTW, where you're sitting matters in how many points you get.
In mahjong, the East wind seat is dealer (oya).
If you win while being dealer, you get to continue being dealer (with a 100 ten deposit that doesn't subtract from your score... more on this later).

btw, IT'S PUN TIME.
If one player is dealer (oya), the other players are the children. In the real world, parents give more money to their children, but in mahjong, it's reversed. Dealer gains more points if (s)he wins as dealer.
However, this power is a double-edged sword--if one of the children wins, the dealer pays double what the other children would have to pay.

(I006)Oh yeah, Question.

Few Quick Questions that I couldn't ask when you were rambling, Ayumu.
What's the dora when the indicator is a 9?
As you recall, dora indicator means the next in sequence is the dora. However, 9 is the end of the sequence. When this happens, 1 becomes the dora. The suit remains unchanged, though. Just remember, even though the dora indicator line says after 9 is 1, it doesn't mean you can make a shuntsu with 9->1.

What about when the dora is a tsuuhai?
This is very important. Since there are two types of tsuuhai, there are also two sequences. The top row shows the Wind sequence, ton->nan->xia->pei->ton. Just a reminder, even though the dora sequence exists, you can't make a shuntsu with winds.
Likewise, the Dragon sequence, haku->hatsu->chun->haku is shown, and can't be used as shuntsu.

Remember back when you were showing me the shuuhai? What are those red 5 tiles?
ah, those are special tiles. these are ari-ari only tiles, the red-dora tiles! regardless of the dora indicator, having a red 5 in your hand counts as a dora.
do note that it is only the red 5s that count as dora; the red chun of the three dragons is not a dora unless by dora indicator.

Anymore more tangents? No? Then I'll tell you about set up.

(I007)Setting Up and Payment Types

The first thing to do when setting up is determining seat position.
Four tiles are placed face down, one per wind (ton, nan, xia, pei). These are shuffled as much as 4 tiles can be shuffled, and then players pick them randomly.
After taking your seats in the proper positions, create the walls (sometimes called mountains) 17 tiles wide, 2 tiles deep, 1 wall per player. The current east is known as the Dealer of the Beginning.
The Dealer of the Beginning then rolls a pair of dice, and counters counterclockwise per player, starting on him/herself. The last counted player is now the True Dealer.
Now the True Dealer rolls the dice, and also counts counterclockwise starting on him/herself. Whoever's wall the final count lands on will have their wall as the starting point of the game. The place to start drawing from is determined by the already rolled dice. Counting that same number starting from the owner's right hand side towards the left, the final count is where the dead wall (7 sections deep) ends, and the starting hand draws begin. Tiles are drawn clockwise, while player turn is counterclockwise. Hands are built by each player drawing in rotation 4 tiles at a time--2 tiles wide, 2 tiles deep--for three rotations, then a single tile is drawn. The dealer then starts the game.

As stated before, Chii has a really inconvenient usage restriction.
You can only call chii on the immediate discard of the player to your left. You cannot call chii on discards by the player across from you nor by the player to your right.
Pon, and likewise kan, however, can be called on any player's discard.
In the case of one player calling chii on a tile, and another player calling pon/kan on the same tile, the pon/kan takes precedence. In the same vein, Ron has higher priority than any of the building calls.

Since we are reflecting on calls, let's reflect on winning.
In the case of tsumo-winning, all other players pay the winner by sharing the load of the hand. If a child wins by tsumo, then half of the payment is made by the dealer, while the other two children each pay a quarter of the total.
In the case of ron-winning, the player that discarded into the winning hand must pay the entire hand's value.

While it was implied earlier with "you get to keep being dealer if you win as dealer", if anyone who isn't dealer wins, dealer status is shifted one player counterclockwise. A whole game of riichi mahjong is played in a segment called a hanchan, which consists of two rounds of everyone being dealer once. That is to say, in a game of riichi mahjong, everyone gets to be dealer twice (assuming the game doesn't end prematurely).
A hanchan is half of a whole chan. Each "round" is represented by a wind. Since riichi mahjong is played by only half a chan, east round wind and south round wind are the only winds that get played. West wind round and North wind round are not usually played in riichi mahjong.

There are two possibilities I can think of off of the top of my head.
The first is that instead of proper yaku, you've only collected dora. While dora do inflate your han count, they don't count as the minimum 1 yaku necessary for a winning hand. Hording dora will boost your hand's value, but having only dora means you've got the air for a balloon, but no balloon to blow up.
The other thing I can think of is if you tried to declare ron while you've discarded a tile you could use now to complete your hand. Even if you couldn't use it at the time, this is a technical state called "furiten". You're in a tenpai state, but you've passed up one of your winning tiles. Even if your hand is in such a position that that tile wouldn't give you a necessary yaku, while the other wait will, your hand is still in furiten. Either be more careful, or change your wait! You could also hope for tsumo, but that's hardly an often winning strategy.

Non-dealer's initial draw results in a winning hand; player's ankan no allowed, no calls made by other players either

Shuntsu

1

N/A

Pinfu

All mentsu are sequences, atama must not be an active tsuupai (no dragons, no seat or round wind), wait must be ryanmen

Shuntsu

1

N/A

Iipeikou

Same-sequence twice; must be in the same suit and same number sequence. (EG: 112233 in souzu)

Shuntsu

1+1(iipeikou)+1(iipeikou)

N/A

Ryanpeikou

Two sets of Iipeikou; do not need to be the same sets. (EG: 223344 manzu, 556677souzu)

Shuntsu

2

1

Ikkitsuukan

Full set of a suit (123456789 in same suit); is often shortened to "itsuu"

Shuntsu

2

1

Sanshokudoujun

Same sequence in all three suits (234manzu, 234pinzu, 234souzu); often shortened to "sanshoku/sanshiki"

Koutsu

2

2

Toitoihou

all mentsu are koutsu; almost always shortened to "toi-toi"

Koutsu

2

2

Sanshokudoukou

same numbered koutsu in all three suits (666manzu, 666pinzu, 666souzu); not really shortened, but also "sanshokudoupon"

Koutsu

2

2

Sanankou

three strongly concealed koutsu; open hand is allowed for the remaining mentsu or tanki wait ron

Koutsu

2

2

Sankantsu

winning player has declared three kans with current hand; few ari-ari rules increase fan count to 3

Koutsu

Yakuman

Yakuman

Suuankou

four concealed koutsu; koutsu must be strongly concealed--ron-winning suuankou MUST be tanki wait only; some ari-ari variations make suuankou tanki a double yakuman

Koutsu

Yakuman

Yakuman

Suukantsu

winning hand is composed of 4 kans; nashi-nashi rules require win by rinshan kaihou due to 4-kans abortive washout. ari-ari rules make an exception to the 4-kans washout rule, if a single player has declared all four kans for the sake of suukantsu, with the abortive washout happening on a fifth kan.

Yaochuuhai

1

0

Tanyaochuu

hand consists purely of numbers 2-8, often shortened to "tanyao"; this hand consists of no "yaochuuhai" (1,9) or tsuuhai; almost all ari-ari rules and a few nashi-nashi rules allow tanyao to be open for 1 han

Yaochuuhai

2

1

Honchanta Yaochuu

each mentsu and the atama have at least one yaochuuhai(1,9) or tsuuhai. (E.G. 123manzu, 789pinzu, 111souzu, xia-xia-xia, haku-haku) often shortened to "chanta"

Yaochuuhai

1+2(chanta)

1+1(chanta)

Junchanta Yaochuu

each mentsu and atama is composed of at least one yaochuuhai (1,9). (E.G. 123 manzu, 111 manzu, 123pinzu, 11souzu, 999 souzu) often shortened to "junchan"

Yaochuuhai

2+1(chanta, no closed bonus)

2+1(chanta)

Honroutou

each mentsu is composed entirely of yaochuuhai(1,9) or tsuuhai; only happens in the cases of toitoi(+2 fan) or chiitoi(+2), giving a minimum of 5 fan when involved. (E.G. 111999manzu, 111pinzu, xia-xia-xia, ton-ton)

Yaochuuhai

Yakuman

Yakuman

Chinroutou

purely yaochuuhai (1,9). (E.G. 111999manzu, 111999pinzu, 99souzu)

Tsuuhai

1

1

Fanpai/Yakupai

koutsu of a dragon, seat wind, or round. can be stacked. (E.G. Dealer during east round get's 2 fan for a koutsu of ton)

Tsuuhai

Yakuman

Yakuman

Tsuuiisou

hand is composed entirely of tsuuhai.

Tsuuhai

2+1(fanpai)+1(fanpai)

2+1(fanpai)+1(fanpai)

Shousangen

two koutsu of the sangenpai and atama of the third.

Tsuuhai

Yakuman

Yakuman

Daisangen

koutsu of all three dragons.

Tsuuhai

Yakuman

Yakuman

Shousuushi

3 koutsu of winds, atama of the 4th.

Tsuuhai

Yakuman

Yakuman

Daisuushi

4 koutsu of the winds; ari-ari and some nashi-nashi regard this as a double yakuman

Shuuhai

3

2

Honiisou

hand is composed entirely of a single suit and/or tsuuhai. (E.G. 3 koutsu of souzu, hatsu fanpai, xia atama); often known as "honitsu" or "honichi"

purely green tiles. that means souzu and hatsu. but not just souzu and hatsu. only the souzu that are entirely green. this limits the tiles to 2,3,4,6, and 8. This is almost specific to japanese sets.

Special Case

Yakuman

N/A or Yakuman

Chuurenpoutou

1112345678999+1-9, all in the pinzu. a few ari-ari styles allow this hand to be open

Special Case

Yakuman

N/A

Junsei Chuurenpoutou

in the case of chuurenpoutou tenpai being 1112345678999, there is a 9 sided wait. in most ari-ari styles, this is counted as a double yakuman.

Special Case

Yakuman

N/A

Kokushi Musou

1 of every yaochuuhai and tsuuhai, with a single one being a pair. 1-9(m)-1-9(p)-1-9(s)-T-N-X-P-Hk-Ht-C with any of these repeated once for atama.

Special Case

Yakuman

N/A

Kokushi Musou of 13 waits

In the case of Kokushi Musou tenpai being one of each thirteen yaochuuhai and tsuuhai, the wait has 13 possible winning tiles. in most ari-ari styles, this is counted as a double yakuman.

There are two types of ari-ari/nashi-nashi differences. The first type are local/house yaku, and the second are methodologies. First I'll list the Yaku. Note that some official yaku also have local renditions. These yaku will be relisted with their common house rules applied. Do note that really specialized house rules that aren't as common will be missed, just because I'm not omniscient. Anyways, onto debatable yaku.

Debatable Yaku

Type

Closed

Open

Yaku Name

Description

Winning

1

N/A

Ippatsu

winning within the first go-around after declaring riichi. this is voided if anyone makes any call, including ankan. a few very loose ari-ari sets allow the riichi declarer ippatsu if they declare ankan on their immediate tsumo post riichi, assuming they also get rinshan kaihou. in most cases, however, it is voided. note that declaration of riichi is not a "call" that disrupts the draw order, so it doesn't cause the ippatsu to be voided.

Winning

1+1

N/A

Open Riichi

In addition to calling riichi, some variants allow you to open either your waiting portion to be view by other players, or your entire hand. Upon winning after revealing your wait, an extra han is fixed onto the riichi, for a total of 2 fan. Basically you get more points for being an asshole.

Koutsu

2

2

Sanrenkou

Also called "Sanrenpon", it is 3 koutsu in shuntsu order. Some looser variants give this 3 han for strongly closed. (E.G. 444souzu 555souzu 666souzu; can be obtained open using pon/kan).

Koutsu

1

1

Sanshokushodoukou

Like how DaiSanGen has a weaker variant ShouSanGen, Sanshokudoukou can have a weaker variant. 2 koutsu and atama of the same number across the 3 suits.

Ryuukyoku

Mangan

N/A

Nagashi Mangan

If a player makes no calls and discards only yaochuuhai and tsuupai the entire hand such that the game goes to draw/wash out, that player is payed as if (s)he won a mangan limit hand by tsumo.

Winning

5/8/13

N/A

Renhou

If player starts in tenpai and another player discards that winning tile before the tenpai player's turn, Renhou can be declared. Different rules mark that victory as a Mangan, Baiman, or Yakuman.

Winning

Yakuman

N/A

Shiisanbudou

12 disordered tiles such that no mentsu can be properly made and a pair. In the same vein as Tenhou, Chiihou, and Renhou, Shiisanbudou can only be called during the first go-around, and no other calls may have been made.

Yaochuuhai

Yakuman

N/A

Daisharin

22334455667788 in pinzu. simultaneous chiitoi and ryanpeikou; excludes all yaochuuhai. some looser variations allow this yakuman in other suits. for a fabulous example, see Koizumi's use of Daichikurin (daisharin in souzu) in Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku ~the Legend of Koizumi~

Shuntsu

Yakuman

Yakuman

Suurenjun

same sequence in the same suit 4 times. (4 identical shuntsu, using all 4 of each of the 3 tile types; E.G. 345,345,345,345 pinzu)

Winning

5/8/13

5/8/13

Paarenchan

continuing being dealer for 8 consecutive hands, any victory is treated as a limit hand. Some variants fix the limit hand to mangan, baiman, or yakuman.

Yaochuuhai

1

1

Tanyaochuu

officially, this yaku is only usable when strongly concealed. looser variants allow this yaku even with open calls.

Debatable Methods and RulesRed 5 doras: see tutorial entry

Double Ron: Two players declaring ron on the same discarded tile. Officially, the first one in the seat sequence East->South->West->North has priority, but this rule forces the player to pay both hands.

South failed preparations: If the game goes to ryuukyoku and the dealer is not in tenpai, the dealership status usually gets shifted to the current south seat. Under this rule, dealer gets to continue being dealer if South seat isn't in tenpai either.

Tenpai Renchan: allows dealer to continue dealing without winning, as long as the dealer is in tenpai by the time the game washes out to a draw.

Ryanhanshibari: If a dealer continues to rack up renchan, then once the 5th or 7th renchan is reached, the dealer must have a minimum 2 fan hand in order to declare a winning hand.

Play Continuing: If no players have reached or exceeded the 30,000 point mark by the end of the South round, the hanchan is extended into the chan rounds until someone exceeds that limit (sudden death). Continues first into West round, then into North round if necessary. If for some magical reason no conclusion is reached by the end of North round, it loops back the East.

Yakitori: players have a bird marker that they flip over once they win any hand. If the game's conclusion is reached and a player hasn't flipped this marker over, they pay a chombo to those who have won.

Yakibuta: a player flips their bird marker on the final round, escaping yakitori penalty. The other players pay a chombo.

Stagnant Riichi: even if declaring ankan after riichi does NOT change the wait, players are still forbidden to do so as it changes the hand's fu value.

Natural Wins Only: There are four situation yaku which ignore hand composition: Rinshan Kaihou, Kanchan, Haitei Raoyue, and Houtei Raoyui. Natural wins only rule treats these yaku like dora han, meaning they can't be the only yaku in the hand in order to declare a win.

Atozuke: allows a yaku-less hand to declare ron if the winning tile creates the yaku.

Double Yakuman: special case yakuman hands can have twice the value they normally have if conditions are met. Yakuman may also be "stacked" in certain rule sets, like tsuuiisou+daisangen. Some cases my exceed mere "double" yakuman, but since you probably cheated to get there, you're gonna get beaten, physically. If you didn't, you'll still probably get beaten, since it's too unbelievable.

Kandora: declaration of a kan allows another dora indicator to be revealed. some variants allow the flip before a player discards in the case that rinshan kaihou does not happen, while others only flip the tile after the player has finished his/her move.

Kanuradora: same concept as uradora but applied to kan dora. win with riichi after someone has declared a kan or three, and you get more shots are dora. let's say the other three players have declared one kan a piece. that's 4 doras revealed. now let's say you declare riichi, after which you draw a 4th tile to complete an ankan. so you do, and get rinshan kaihou before the game aborts due to 4 kan. 5 dora indicators, 5 uradora indicators. yeah, shit's getting dumb.

Kuikae: in most cases, you aren't allowed to declare chii, steal a certain tile, then discard the same tile (holding 345, someone discards 5, you declare chii for 345, and discard the 5 you already held--this is usually illegal, but is allowed under this rule). The same applies for shifting a chii (holding 456, someone discards 7, you chii for 567, then discard 4. Usually illegal, allowed under this rule).

No Limit Hands: some bizarre people don't like the ease of the limit hands, so play without limits. Big hands also have stupidly HUGE point counts, so starting scores need to be adjusted to take the hit too. And I guess that means starting scores variations should be listed here.

Variation of Starting Scores and Victory Pot Breaking: Ignoring the ridiculous amount of point sticks you'd need for No Limit style of play, normal play also has a few point variations, though they all center around the same idea. Winner's "score" is calculated by adding up how far off the losers' score is from 30,000, then divide by 1,000. Most places you'll find online start at 25,000, while 26k, 27k, and 30k also happen frequently enough irl. Anyways, let's show an example of a 25k starting 30k pay out system with Uma distribution in play (very common). Say the top scorer has 49,800 ten, second has 22,300, third has 17,900, and last has 10,000. The differences from 30k for the losers are (30,000-22,300)+(30,000-17,900)+(30,000-10,000). These would be 7,700; 12,100; and 20,000. dividing by 1000 per and truncating decimals, second place's base score is -7, third's is -12, and fourth's is -20. Adding these together to get -39, you flip the sign, and give the top ranker a base score of +39. The normal distribution give victory bonus/penalties as (top +9, losers -3). This means the final score in a normal distribution is top: +48, 2nd: -10, 3rd: -15, and 4th: -23. In the Uma proportionality bonus distribution, (top +10, 2nd +5, 3rd -5, 4th -10). This means that with the final score distribution is Top: +49, 2nd: -2, 3rd: -17, 4th: -30.

Base Score (Fu):
Any completed hand starts with a base score count of 20 fu. All following formations are added onto fu count, and then forcefully rounded up to the nearest 10s digit. For example, a 22 fu hand is considered a 30 fu hand. Chiitoitsu ALWAYS has a fu count of 25. It is the only hand with a fu count not a multiple of ten.

Open

Fully Concealed

Exceptions

Honors Pair

0

2

Chiitoitsu's fu is fixed

3 of a kind: 2-8

2

4

3 of a kind: 1,9, honors

4

8

4 of a kind: 2-8

8

16

4 of a kind: 1,9, honors

16

32

single wait

2

2

kanchan, penchan, tanki only; ryanmen with an exhausted end does not count

tsumo-winning

0

2

pinfu and rinshan kaihou earn 0 fu even if strongly concealed

ron-winning

0

10

not an exception but remember! must be weakly concealed

kanchan wait is waiting on a middle of a shuntsu--if you're waiting on a 6 to turn 57 into 567, it's a kanchan.
penchan wait is waiting on an edge tile; only happens for 123 or 789--waiting on the 3 or 7 in these cases is an edge wait.
tanki wait is waiting on a single tile to complete the atama-- 123555888999<xia>, waiting on a single <xia> is a tanki wait.

strongly concealed is a winning hand with no calls (unless ankan) and won by tsumo.
weakly concealed is a winning hand with no calls (unless ankan) and won by ron.

No problem. Still have a ways to go before the lists and rules are all here, but I do hope that the basics of playing are easy enough to grasp now, at least to get a general idea of how to play. In fact, since I've mentioned chombo and ryuukyoku but haven't explained them, I should probably get to those. As well as point distribution. And making a more readable version of the scoring chart. Maybe include the calculation algorithym for those insane -no limit- rules. Oh shit, I forgot to put -no limit hands- variation in my list of house rules.

EDIT: no limit hands variation added, a small bit added in rules. Have other stuff to do, so can't finish it right now, again. ;_;

hey now, at least you get visual aids and bad fake dialogue. When I learned how to play (self-taught), I didn't have real visual aids or badly comical speech to give my brain a rest. I just read and grinded cpu mahjong on gamedesign and various eroge that i couldn't read. i think this will actually make learning a bit easier, or at least easier than the way i learned.

hey now, at least you get visual aids and bad fake dialogue. When I learned how to play (self-taught), I didn't have real visual aids or badly comical speech to give my brain a rest. I just read and grinded cpu mahjong on gamedesign and various eroge that i couldn't read. i think this will actually make learning a bit easier, or at least easier than the way i learned.

I wasn't complaining. Just so much to go through at once, it will take me awhile, is all.

How do they calculate the score in that table? The way I learned to score, I'm getting waaay less points than what it shows. Though, I'm pretty sure that my style of scoring is pretty different, since I also assign different han values for some of the yaku. (And some of the rules are different, though that may just be house rules. I don't really know.)

yeah, there's tons of different scoring methods because of different styles of play. Is the way you learned to score something along the lines of

dealer seat

3 han

4 han

5 han

6 han

7 han

8 han

20

N/A

2000 (700)

3900 (1300)

7700 (2600)

12000 (4000)

18000 (6000)

22-30

1500 (500)

2900 (1000)

5800 (2000)

11600 (3900)

12000 (4000)

18000 (6000)

32-40

2000 (700)

3900 (1300)

7700 (2600)

12000 (4000)

12000 (4000)

18000 (6000)

42-50

2400 (800)

4800 (1600)

9600 (3200)

12000 (4000)

12000 (4000)

18000 (6000)

52-60

2900 (1000)

5800 (2000)

11600 (3900)

12000 (4000)

12000 (4000)

18000 (6000)

62-70

3400 (1200)

6800 (2300)

12000 (4000)

12000 (4000)

12000 (4000)

18000 (6000)

72-80

3900 (1300)

7700 (2600)

12000 (4000)

12000 (4000)

12000 (4000)

18000 (6000)

child seats

3han

4han

5han

6han

7han

8han

20

N/A

1300 (700-400)

2600 (1300-700)

5200 (2600-1300)

8000 (4000-2000)

12000 (6000-3000)

22-30

1000 (500-300)

2000 (1000-500)

3900 (2000-1000)

7700(3900-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

12000 (6000-3000)

32-40

1300 (700-400)

2600 (1300-700)

5200 (2600-1300)

8000 (4000-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

12000 (6000-3000)

42-50

1600 (800-400)

3200 (1600-800)

6400 (3200-1600

8000 (4000-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

12000 (6000-3000)

52-60

2000 (1000-500)

3900 (2000-1000)

7700(3900-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

12000 (6000-3000)

62-70

2300 (1200-600)

4500 (2300-1200)

8000 (4000-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

12000 (6000-3000)

72-80

2600 (1300-700)

5200 (2600-1300)

8000 (4000-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

8000 (4000-2000)

12000 (6000-3000)

??? if so, it's an older style of japanese riichi mahjong that is still often played, though the newer scoring system seems to be gaining more popularity (at least to my knowledge, which may be lacking).

As for the way that i'm used to calculating, the Base Score (Fu) table in my second post is used, along with counting the han using the values in the yaku tables. Then I just look at the scoring chart from the Akagi OST if is lower than a 5 han mangan, since i haven't played irl in a long time, so have lost my recall on the exponential hands.

Eh, if i'm posting that scoring diagram, might as well break it down too. let's see if i can decipher the moon runes on the pink slip in my set case.1 han yaku
pinfu
tanyao
riichi
menzen tsumo
iipeikou

is this the set you play with, saradin? if i look harder i might be able to find another japanese riichi variant, but i chose the thread's specific one because this is BL. That style appears the most in random eroge, as well as is one of the more popular versions played on the tenhou servers. It just seems like it had a wider audience potential.

and i reinforce that i can't read moonrunes. i'm just assigning sounds to shapes that i've look at for a while, so when it comes the actual rules written i can't decipher shit. ;_;

The way I learned is simple: (fu) x (2^han). So if you have, say 32 fu and 2 han, your score is 128. It's something simple that you can do in your head without having to memorize tables.

In terms of the yaku, it's basically the easy ones are worth 1 han, and the hard ones are worth 2 han. The cutoff point between easy and hard is generally around the "all the same suit/honors" condition. And of course, there's yakuman, but no one ever gets those so...

I do have a book of rules that came with the set, but I've never really read it. Well, I looked through it once, but it's hard to understand, because I don't know a lot of the terminology. (On a side note, the book is so old that it uses outdated kana.)

With a score of 128, you'd be wholly unable to divide the sticks properly, unless you multipled your score calculation by 100. But then, that's a hefty portion of your overall score for a meager 2 han hand, so i'm confused about the point parsing.

But yeah, just goes to show that there are many variations on how to play. Feel free to post about it, as I'm completely fine with derailing this topic into a general mahjong discussion.

Generally we don't play with the sticks. We just write the points down on a pad of paper. Or you can play 1 point = 1 cent and do some cheap gambling like that. Though I don't gamble, but I'm told that's what my grandparents/parents used to play for.

If we used the sticks, we would probably do in some multiple of 4, since that's generally how we count scoring. Maybe increments of 4, 20, 80 and 400 or something.

checking the charts that you don't want to memorize, that's the a 30 fu - 2 han hand.
i think your scoring is either a house rule on scoring, or a portion of the calculation got lost along the way. this is just postulation, though. this simpler form might just be the calculations of a style i'm not familiar with.

Since I assumed that the majority of people reading were gonna use the internet in all of its glory to play, I left this until later, since the programmers would do all of the set up work. This is for those who want to play IRL but either rely on others to set up, or just don't play because they don't know how to participate. I also think it's necessary to make an official post about the points.

Distributing the points (ten) sticks
First, it is necessary to know which sticks are worth what, and what they look like.<- this is the 10,000 ten stick. It's backbone of your starting score, so if you have to dish it out early, you're in trouble.<- this is the 5,000 ten stick. These are also a good chunk of your starting score.<- this is the 1,000 ten stick. If you've seen any mahjong anime or read any manga, it's the iconic riichi stick. <- this is the 100 ten stick. You'll be handling these quite a bit, since hands perfectly dividable by 1000 are rarities. Even limit hands become prone to score adjustment due to renchan.

Different sets have different amounts of sticks, but the suggested distribution of those sticks per player is
1 -
2 -
9 -
10 -

I've seen a few sets that have, what i assume to be, a strange "stick printing error". Rather than 36 (nine 1000 ten sticks per player), they only have 32 (eight 1000 ten sticks per player); and instead of 40 (10 per player), they have 44(11 per player). This could also be a way to keep people from starting at 30,000 ten per game, if that style of play isn't preferred, but that's strange imo.

In-Game Deposits, Penalties, and BonusesRiichi Deposit: You all remember the riichi deposit, right? You throw down a riichi-bou when declaring riichi to piss people off follow the declaration rules. The riichi deposit is now free game on the table. If the game goes to a draw, the stick stays on the table. This doesn't mean that when you start the next hand, your in a state of riichi--that just means you left the points on the table. If you want to declare riichi again, you have to make another deposit. If your deposit points are on the table, but someone else wins, in addition to their winning payment, they also get to take all riichi deposits on the table.

Renchan Deposits: Remember when Ayumu said that you get to keep being dealer when you win as one? That's only if you decide to make a 100 ten deposit, for each victory. This means that if you have been dealer 5 times in a row, there should be four 100 tenbou on the table (first round as dealer requires no deposit, 4 bonus rounds require one 100 tenbou per round). Unlike riichi deposits, these stay on the table in the case of a victory. In the case of renchan combos ending, your sticks are returned to you. If you have renchan sticks on the table but the game washes out and you are not in tenpai, these sticks remain on the table and are passed to the next dealer. The previously stated rule still applies, however, and your sticks are returned to you once the renchan combo ends.

Renchan Bonus: For every renchan deposit on the table, hand values are increased by 300 ten. This means that in the case of a child haneman ron with 2 renchan in effect, the payout is 12600, instead of 12000. In the case of a tsumo, each player (regardless of child or dealer) pays an additional 100 per renchan.

Ending/Proportionality Bonus: You'll often see players starting with 25,000 ten each, so what's the extra 5000 for? Those are for proportionality bonus at the end. To simplify score calculations, as shown in the Debatable Yaku/Rules section, those extra 5000 are thrown around for the proportionality bonus, in order to avoid too much outside math. In a normal Top rank wins only, 3000 of the 5000 is given to the winner from each player. With the Uma proportionality bonus, 3rd gives the 5000 to 2nd, and 4th gives the 5000+an additional 5000 from his/her score to the Top. (In the case of the 4th player going negative, the numbers have to be calculated by hand if you care to keep records.) This simplifies calculations, since now, each loser only needs to find the difference between their current point holdings and 30,000, and those are their point rankings. Flip the sign and add them up, that's the top's score ranking.

Chombo penalties: Break any of the rules in effect (and get caught), pay a mangan payment. Some rule sets make this dependent on seat, making cheating as dealer more painful. Examples of chombo payments would be declaring riichi while in noten (not in tenpai), the game goes to wash out and your hand is revealed to be in pieces; getting caught switching tiles (this is a nice penalty, some people would kick you out of a parlor or tourney if you were caught).

Ryuukyoku penalties: In the case of the game washing out, those in tenpai receive a small payment from those not in tenpai. Of course, if everyone is in tenpai or everyone is noten, then no points are transferred. Renchan does NOT apply to ryuukyoku penalties.
For 3 tenpai - 1 noten: 1000 to each tenpai, 3000 from noten
For 2 tenpai - 2 noten: 1500 to each tenpai, 1500 from each noten
For 1 tenpai - 3 noten: 3000 to tenpai, 1000 from each noten

Ok, I fished out my set and the book of rules that came with it, and after painstakingly trying to read it, it said the scoring was how I said. The sticks were worth 10, 100 and 500 (there's only 3 types). There's also a piece of paper with a scoring chart, and none of the amounts are rounded. But seeing as how it looks like my grandfather's handwriting, I'm not exactly sure I can call that official.

There's another piece of paper that has a bunch of yaku on it, and there's only 17 non-yakuman, each worth 1 han, and then 10 yakuman. And there's 2 others listed, the 7 pairs, and the all one suit with no winds/dragons. The 7 pairs says it's worth 100 points, and the other one is 4 han. This one looks like a photocopy from a book, so it's probably legit. (If you're interested what the 17 normal yakus are, I can try reading them, but it's a pain since I don't know any terminology.)

hmmm, that's a style i've not encountered yet. sounds interesting. if it is too much of a hassle to read them, you can always just photocopy the photocopy and upload it. either way, you've got my attention.

The page is kind of faded, sadly. Plus I don't have a scanner. So I'm giving it my best shot. And I don't know the names, and I'm not going to try to guess them, so you'll get my bad translation of them/description. (There were a ton of kanji that looked like they're outdated, so I just kinda, matched them as best as I could with a list of yaku.)

1) Tsumo
2) No-point hand
3) No terminal/wind/dragon
4) All the same suit + wind/dragons
5) All koutsu
6) All koutsu and all terminal/winds/dragons
7) 3 hidden koutsu
8) 2 koutsu of dragons, the pair is dragon
9) Everything has a terminal/wind/dragon in it
10) 3 kan
11) 123456789 of one suit
12) Victory from the tile drawn when you declare a kan.
13) When someone places a tile down from a previously declared pon to form a kan, and you instead take that tile to win.
14) Victory from the last tile drawn from the wall before a stalemate
15) Victory from the last tile discarded before a stalemate
16) Riichi
17) "Other" (1-17 are all labeled as 1 han)

Yakuman:
1) Dealer starts with winning hand
2) Other players wins with first draw
3) Koutsu of all 3 dragons
4) Koutsu of all 4 winds
5) All koutsu, all terminals (including pair)
6) All wind/dragon
7) 4 concealed koutsu
8) One of every terminal/dragon/wind, and the last one matches any of the others.
9) 1112345678999 + any other tile of that suit, all the same suit
10) "Other"